May 2023 Update

Dear POLLEN Members and Friends, 

We are pleased to share with you the latest publications, vacancies, CfPs and more from our lively community. We aim to send the newsletter on the 25th of every month.   

Has your POLLEN node NOT been introduced by us? If your node is keen to share your work in upcoming newsletters, please write to us at politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com.  

We also welcome proposals for blog posts on the POLLEN blog – please contact us at the same email address with any ideas!  

We are pleased to post the latest publications, CfPs and more from our lively community.  

With best regards from your POLLEN Secretariat  

Kelly Dorkenoo, Torsten Krause, Mine Islar and Wim Carton  

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Publications 

Journal articles 

1. Branch, A., Phillips, J., & Agyei, F. K. (2023). Charcoal politics in Africa: Value chains, resource complexes, and energopolitics. Progress in Environmental Geography, https://doi.org/10.1177/27539687231165798 

2. Wiktor-Mach, D. & Skupiński, M. & Salih, K., (2023) “‘We want to have a positive impact’: Fragile ecologies and the Iraqi Kurds’ dutiful environmentalism”, Journal of Political Ecology 30(1), 198–218. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5377 

Book 

1. Upcoming book by Benjamin Neimark (November, 2023) Hottest of the hotspots. The Rise of Eco-Precarious Conservation Labor in Madagascar. The book provides a a critical look at the climate crisis from the nexus of biodiversity https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/hottest-of-the-hotspots. 

Events & Announcements 

1. PhD Course – “Governance at the Edge of the State Summer school: Epistemes and 
   Materialities of Extractive Capitalism”. 
   Call for applications for a 3-day summer school. Candidates can apply by sending both a 1 page CV and a 1000 words outline of the research paper they want to discuss at the course. This outline should specify how their PhD project relates to the overall theme of this course and give clear indications on the theoretical and methodological approach adopted. Applications should be sent govesta2023@outlook.com. 
   When: 21-23 August 2023 
   Where: University of Copenhagen 
   More info: https://govesta2023.brick.site/ 

2. Conference – The Science and Technology Anthropology Meeting (ReACT) 
   When: 21^st to 24^th of November 2023. 
   Where: Federal University of Goiás, in the city of Goiânia, Brazil. 

Vacancies 

1. Senior Fellow position at the James Hutton Institute. We seek a Senior Fellow in Green Finance – someone to critically engage with the subject of nature-based investments and in particular to understand their implications for justice and systemic approaches to managing landscapes and nature in Scotland.  We are flexible as to discipline or background and the candidate will be able to shape their own research approach; but we need someone able to develop both high-quality academic contributions and stakeholder relationships. We are happy to discuss different forms of flexible working, though we wish for the fellow to be a regular presence in our Aberdeen office so we can build relationships and eat cake together. We welcome candidates from anywhere in the world, but require the fellowship work to be oriented around Scotland. I’d like to flag that the salary noted in the advert is the bottom of a pay band; and that this a ‘tenure track’ position, so subject to a business case and appropriate performance, the contract will be made open-ended after 3 years. Please contact me (Kerry.Waylen@hutton.ac.uk) for any informal enquiries. More info: https://hutton.current-vacancies.com/Jobs/Advert/3103875?cid=2065&t=MDT-Fellowship–Green-Finance  
   Deadline: June 2, 2023 

2. Postdoc position at University of Zürich.  
   We are looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher at 80-100% (0.8-1.0 FTE) for two years to contribute to our Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funded project “Translating transformations: Improving transdisciplinary transformative change initiatives by promoting critical social science literacy.” The successful candidate will be part of the Space, Nature and Society group (SNS), led by Prof. Dr. Norman Backhaus, in the Department of Geography (GIUZ) at the University of Zürich (UZH). The candidate’s immediate supervisor will be Dr. Sierra Deutsch. More info: https://jobs.uzh.ch/offene-stellen/postdoctoral-position-in-critical-social-science-literacy-for-transdisciplinary-transformative-change-initiatives/cd1a95af-6311-491b-94c1-d22251abdb0e  
   Deadline: May 31, 2023. 

3. Postdoc /Lecturer position at University of Bayreuth.  
   Vacancy Lecturer position (m/f/d) (post-doc/ Habilitation), 100%, E13 or A13, Economic Geography Bayreuth, 6 years with option for extension. A post-doctoral position is available in the Department of Economic Geography at the University of Bayreuth. 6 years, 100%. E13 or also A13. Applicants need to be able to TEACH IN GERMAN. The Economic Geography unit at the University of Bayreuth stands for a theoretically grounded research and teaching agenda that critically interrogates the imaginaries, trajectories, possibilities, limits and practicalities of sustainable regional development in an age of global challenges such as rising sociospatial inequality, the looming climate crisis, rising and the ongoing marketization and technologization of social, economic and ecological domains. For more information on the position, the profile of the Chair of Economic Geography and the application process, see here: https://www.uni-bayreuth.de/stelle-kennwort-wirtschaftsgeographie-e14d6bc4f9e26937  
   Deadline: May 31, 2023 

4. Multiple vacancies at Wageningen University 
   More info: https://www.wur.nl/en/research-results/chair-groups/environmental-sciences/forest-and-nature-conservation-policy-group/job-vacancies.htm  
   Deadline: June 19, 2023. 

Calls 

1. Call for papers:  Hazardous Labour and the Making of the City Workshop – Lancaster University, UK 23rd June 2023. This workshop invites contributions on historical and contemporary labour regimes involved in the production of the city (from sanitation and waste work, to construction and brick kilns). We invite interdisciplinary contributions across several themes including (but not limited to): (1) Regimes of visibility and invisibility of labour, including presence or absence within historical archives, the politics of historical and contemporary representation against worker’s and community’s self-representation and organisation. (2) Infrastructural and technological change in relation to co-evolving labour regimes (for example, contradictions between the introduction of sewer-cleaning machines and persistence of manual scavenging). (3) Intersections of caste, class, race and religion in relation to shifting labour regimes including intergenerational change and occupational mobility.  
   Scholars are requested to send a 300-word abstract to p.mishra3@lancaster.ac.uk by 26th May 2023. Lunch and refreshments are provided on the day, and limited bursaries are available to support travel (within the UK) to Lancaster University for ECRs and precariously employed scholars. Please send us a short write-up on what support you require (budget breakdown), with a short justification when submitting your abstract. 

2. Call for expressions of interest to host the POLLEN26 conference. 
   We now call for expressions of interest to host the POLLEN conference in 2026! The biennial POLLEN conferences are the lifeblood of the POLLEN network. This is where we meet, exchange ideas, and build community. Previous conferences have emphasized creating inclusive, informal and inspiring events and have through this gathered lots of experiences on how to craft a POLLEN conference. Hosts of previous conferences include nodes in Wageningen (The Netherlands), Oslo (Norway), Sussex (UK), Durban (South Africa), Copenhagen (Denmark), Lund (Sweden), Lima (Peru), and Dodoma (Tanzania). Anyone interested in making a bid are encouraged to reach out to these nodes to learn about past experiences. While all nodes are warmly invited to express interest, we particularly encourage bids from nodes outside of Europe and bids by nodes collaborating across different contexts to host the conference. To submit a bid to host POLLEN26, send a short (max 1 page) description of your vision for the conference to the political ecology secretariat, politicalecologynetwork@gmail.com, no later than June 20. The bidders would be welcomed to present their bid (in person or virtually) to the POLLEN Biennial General meeting at POLLEN23 in Durban South Africa, at 1530 on the 29th June.  
   Thanks 
   Adrian Nel, Jens Friis Lund, and the POLLEN22/3 Local Organising Committee 

3. Call for papers: Developing a paper related to sustainability and capitalism? Submit your abstract to be part of a special issue proposal organized by Nathan Green and Miles Kenney Lazar for Geoforum. Abstracts due June 15^th 2023. More info and abstracts at geokmr@nus.edu.sg and geowng@nus.edu.sg. 

4. Call for chapter contributions: 
   “Ethics and the Commons: Navigating the normative and applied issues of governance” edited by Dr. Stefan Partelow. Interested contributors are invited to submit a title and abstract by email (stefan.partelow@uni-bonn.de) by 30th July 2023. The edited book will be published Open Access, as part of the Springer series from the Center for Life Ethics at the University of Bonn. All chapters will be peer-reviewed. Open Access costs will be covered by the Center for Life Ethics. 

Other news items 

1.  Interview/dialogue between Alexander Dunlap and Carlos Tornel, published online at Globalizations. It is titled: “An insurrection in energy research: a dialogue between Carlos Tornel and Alexander Dunlap on energy justice, capitalist warfare & decolonization.” https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2023.2204543 

2. Sorting out Ownership Questions – Digging into Financialization through Land Titles Data” New entry on Institutional Landscapes. By André Magnan and Annette Aurélie Desmarais. http://institutionallandscapes.org/contribution/9-sorting-out-ownership-questions-digging-into-financialization-through-land-titles-data/  

3. Blog post by Sabaheta Ramčilović-Suominen in Environmental Politics on titled The radically unradical ‘Beyond Growth’ conference: Disclosing Eurocentric and colonial narratives: https://environmentalpoliticsjournal.net/guest-posts/the-radically-unradical-beyond-growth-conference-disclosing-eurocentric-and-colonial-narratives/